Interesting Problem

[kwl1763]

I know Chris has had this problem before so hopefully others will chime in also.

In my 450 that's been setup for about 6 months.

It's got a monster skimmer that rocks. 2 fish a foxface and a copperband in it and about 25 SPS colonies and frags.

I run carbon and phosban 24/7 and after the cycle have never had a trace of nitrates or phosphates.

I have about 80 astreas, 1 dozen turbos, ad 50 or so ceriths. I have never really had an algea issues at all! There is enough turf for the snails and that's about it. I have to scrape the glass about once a week but that is to keep the corraline from growing more then anything.

The problem is my water is actually to sterile I think. The acros are becoming quite light. They are still healthy but the tricolors are very very light at the base and still light purple at the tips but it's just that they look very odd and lose their nice base colors.

I feed a small amount of oyster eggs and cyclopeeze and golden pearls about once a week.

Several possibilities:

Stop phosban
Only run skimmer a couple hours a day
Feed the corals lots more
Feed the fish like crazy
Start dosing amino acids
Start doing nitrate
Do nothing as the problem will take care of itself as I add more fish!

What do you think?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I think the most natural and sightly method is to add more fish. I would not suggest discontinuing or minimalizing the skimmer, or the GFO for that matter. Your SPS may color up, but it will probably be brown. I dont think this is the color you wanted. The other additions would likely work, but why go through all that trouble, when you can add a fish or two (or ten), and the will add those things for you. prettier, complete and natural. In my 210, i run a very heavy load of fish, a decent skimmer, and ozone, and I am quite happy with the color and growth of my SPS and clams.

 

[james s_]

do you run phosban 24/7? how often have you been changing it out?
im going to be using an identical setup as yours with the TLF 150 reactor's and im planning on running the media bi-monthly or until i have a significant amount of phospates to contend with if any.

 

[broreefr]

I have a 360 thats been up about six months as well, I agree with jmaneyapanda that you would serve yourself well to increase the bioload with more fish, with a 450, you have plenty of room for more livestock.

With 25 sps colonies and the system being new, it may not have established itself enough to support that many sps coral's and they could be slowly starving.

 

[justonemoretank]

Could you just try and "feed the tank" more? Not necessarily put more fish in the tank if you dont want more fish. Just feed the tank as if there were X number more fish. Maybe perhaps feed the corals more? DTs Phyto and Oyster Eggs, Cyclopeeze, etc?
Just a thought.

 

[kwl1763]

A little more background. I've had the rock over a year, the tank is quite full with lots of microfauna. I'm just adding fish slowly since I qt everything for a minimum of a month and only have 2 qt tanks. There will be 3 more fish in by next week as my clowns and regal angel are getting out of qt and in a few months I'll have a "normal" bioload at which time I think this will be a non issue. I run the Phosban 24/7 and I've only had to change it once about 2 months ago. I change the carbon weekly.

Also the colors aren't browning. That has not been an issue. Only lightining up. They are keeping the actual color quite well.

I'll probably just feed he corals more for now.

 

[kappaknight]

What about water changes?

 

[kh971]

Rule one, don't do anything until you know what parameters your water is.
What is your Alk, cal, Mag? I would not worry about the other trace elements.

Also how often do you do water changes?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

now i'm confused. your original post said the corals were becoming "quite light". But they are holding their colors? I dont understand.

At any rate, what I meeant to suggest was that if you want to be careful about broad addition of supplements. They wont go straight to the corals necessarily. And They wont be a guarantee to color them up. Corals with Excess nutrients brown- that was just what I was precautioning about. I wasn't trying to imply yours were brown. Sorry for the inclarity of my comment.

I still suggest just adding more fish. Coral and clam farms have great success adding fertilizaer and nutrient directly to the waters, but they do not do this in their reef tanks- it is in a system that growth and color are the end goal, with no concern of nuisance algae or other issues aquarist worry about.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[mojo]

Check out my thread that I posted to reefcentral.com about the same issue in my tank:

 

[kwl1763]

Thanks for the link Chris I was trying to find it as I have seen it before.

So a little more background.

I do water changes every 2 weeks about 80G worth.

Parameters (These are very consistent thanks to calcium reactor and lots of water volume):
Alk ~10dKh
Calcium 425ppm
SG 1.025
ph 8.1-8.3
temp 78-80
Mg 1300
Amm, trite, trates, phos, all test kit zero

As for the confusion on the colors. I don't mean holding colors as in holding the nice richness. I simply mean that they are not shifting to brown or green.

Fish will help and I will continue to add. Until them I'm going to start feeding the corals more and more until I start seeing any algea issues then I'll stop at that point. I really don't want to just dose nitrates or anything like that as I think feeding the corals is probably a much better method to color them up rather then fuel algea.

 

[mojo]

If you do decide to dose nitrates, you can use potassium nitrate, commonly available in stump remover from Lowes or Home Depot. It's in solid form, and typically 98-99% pure. I had someone that knew their chemistry do the math, and she came up with:

Assuming a saturated solution of DI water and PNO3, if I were to add 2.8mL of this solution to 300g (1135L) of water, it'd raise the nitrate in the tank by 1ppm.

Obviously, adjust this number as necessary for your tank and actual water volume.

 

[goodfortune]

If you decide to go with stump remover (Greenlight Stump Remover, Ace Hardware, etc.) to raise your nitrate levels, You can use this calculator to measure out how much KNO3 you will need to achieve the desired levels in your tank:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilator.php">Fertilator - Fertilizer calculator for aquariums</a>

You may have to register with the APC forum to access the calculator though.

HTH,
Michael


[QUOTE=][B]mojo wrote:[/B] If you do decide to dose nitrates, you can use potassium nitrate, commonly available in stump remover from Lowes or Home Depot. It's in solid form, and typically 98-99% pure. I had someone that knew their chemistry do the math, and she came up with:

Assuming a saturated solution of DI water and PNO3, if I were to add 2.8mL of this solution to 300g (1135L) of water, it'd raise the nitrate in the tank by 1ppm.

Obviously, adjust this number as necessary for your tank and actual water volume.[/QUOTE]

 

[kwl1763]

So all the fish are now in and I fed the corals nightly for 2 weeks prior to leaving for christmas for 2 weeks. I also basically doubled the amount I was feeding the fish and the color is coming back. The only thing that is "lighter then normal" now are my tricolors so it does seem that it was simply a food/nutrient issue. I have cut back to "normal" feeding now as I have essentially double the fish in the tank. Though the bioload is not large by any means and I think it will be OK. I'll continue to feed the corals once a week or so.